


Feverish

by darkness173



Category: Watchmen (2009), Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Gentle Sex, Hand Jobs, Knotting, M/M, Mating Bites, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Other, Self-Lubrication, alpha!Dan, omega!Rorschach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-06 04:30:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11592972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkness173/pseuds/darkness173
Summary: Rorschach unexpectedly goes into heat at Daniel's house after patrol, but seems to be feeling more ill than horny. Daniel didn't even know he was an omega until then. He tries to help his friend without taking advantage of him, but it's hard when he's had a crush on Rorschach for such a long time.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been obsessing so hard over Watchmen and this pairing that I simply had to somehow get it out of my system... I noticed this fandom has almost no alpha/beta/omega dynamics fanfics and since I really enjoy those, I decided to write one myself. It turned out as 20 pages of emotional smut... I'm so sorry.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Watchmen, Rorschach or Nite Owl and I make no money writing fanfics. 
> 
> Warning: English isn't my native language and sadly I have no proofreader, so be prepared for horrifying mistakes... if you feel like it, point them out to me and I'm gonna fix them.

„Are you okay, Rorschach? You seem kinda... out of it, tonight.”

“Fine, just have a slight fever.”

“Oh… well, shit – you could’ve said something… I could’ve gone and patrolled on my own or we could’ve at least called it an early night.”

“I’m fine, Daniel. Have patrolled in way worse conditions before.”

“Yeah, no doubt about that…” Daniel muttered. He slowly took off the Nite Owl suit and pulled on an old, soft-worn long-sleeved shirt and a pair of sweatpants instead. He put on his thick-rimmed glasses and then ran his hand through his sweaty hair with an exasperated sigh. “Come on,” he said in a gentle tone. “Let’s make you a tea and something light to eat.”

Rorschach just grunted and followed Daniel upstairs. He was feeling woozier than he wanted to admit, because by the time they reached the kitchen, he was swaying and seemed about to keel over. Daniel instinctively grabbed him by his shoulders to steady him.

“Whoa, buddy,” he exclaimed, then panicked for a second when he remembered Rorschach didn’t exactly enjoy being touched. To his surprise, the other vigilante accepted his support though, even going as far as to lean against him. Daniel’s concern instantly doubled. He gently led the smaller man to the kitchen table and helped him sit down. As he leaned down to do so, his nose came very close to Rorschach’s head area and he got a whiff of the sliver of skin between Rorschach’s mask and scarf. He froze mid-motion and after a couple of seconds of pure shock, couldn’t help but lean closer and take another deliberate sniff at Rorschach’s barely exposed hairline.

He smelled… delicious. And considering his usual state of body hygiene, it really came as a surprise. Daniel inhaled sharply and felt his mouth water.

“Daniel,” Rorschach growled. “Very impolite.”

Daniel stumbled back with a start, realizing what he was doing.

“Oh my God, Rorschach… I’m… I’m sorry,” he apologized, flustered and mortified. He was slightly aroused and took another step back, horrified at himself. He brought up a trembling hand to cover the lower half of his face in the hope it’d also make the memory of Rorschach’s amazing scent go away.

“R-Rorschach,” he started, then had to stop to swallow audibly. “Are you an o-omega?” he managed to ask.

Rorschach didn’t answer, just sat quietly with his hands neatly in front of him, palm-down on the tabletop. Daniel knew there were few other explanations for the way Rorschach smelled and his own body had reacted to him, but he had a hard time believing that the ruthless vigilante belonged to the gentler sex of omegas. Sure, his minute body type seemed to fit the bill, and it would also explain Rorschach’s fever, if he was about to go into…

‘Holy shit’, thought Daniel. ‘Is he going into heat? Here?!’

“Please, Rorschach, it’s important – don’t you know I’m an alpha? If… if you’re going into heat, we might have a problem here.”

Again, Rorschach was quiet, but his head tilted slowly downwards, the black inkblots of his mask swirling lazily around and creating different pictures.

“Much earlier than anticipated,” he eventually remarked, indirectly confirming all of Daniel’s suspicions. He sounded defeated, which was also reflected in the way his shoulders slumped forwards.

“Oh, hell…” muttered Daniel as another wave of arousal washed over him. He had had a soft spot for Rorschach even when he believed he was an alpha too, and hearing that he was actually an omega and on the verge of his heat wasn’t helping his stupid and hopeless crush any further.

“Could still go home,” Rorschach offered and tried to stand up, except he stumbled and had to grasp the edge of the table not to fall over.

“No, no… That’s out of the question – you can barely walk and soon every alpha around is gonna be all over you. I-it’s too dangerous to go outside-”

“Hurm. Can take care of myself.”

“-you should probably just lie down, maybe take some of those clothes off… Come on, we can get you all set up in the guest bedroom and I can still make you that tea and maybe some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches – a-and don’t worry, I can just stay in my room and most of the day I’m in the Owl Nest anyway, so you have pretty much the whole apartment for yourself-“

“Daniel. Babbling.”

“Y-yeah, sorry.”

Daniel licked his lips and stopped wringing his hands. He was aware he was making a fool out of himself, but Rorschach being an omega had been an overwhelming discovery. Not to mention it was getting harder to ignore the steady if faint throbbing in his lower body regions.

Rorschach, who had still been bracing himself against the table, carefully took a step away from it and didn’t wait for Daniel to lead him to the guest bedroom, heading there himself instead. After a short moment of hesitation, Daniel followed him, wanting to make sure he made it there safely. Despite having visibly shaky legs Rorschach made it to his destination with a determination that was admirable and sat down at the edge of the bed. He took off his fedora and scarf, placed them on a free chair nearby and then slowly slipped out of his trench coat as well. Daniel’s heartrate picked up when Rorschach’s scent hung thick and heavy in the air. His breathing became labored to the point he was panting and he hastily left the room.

‘Fuck…’ he thought once he was back in the kitchen. ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck, I don’t know if I can do this. How is he so calm? Is it just like some regular flu to him? Jeez, it’s like he doesn’t even care he’s in my house – in my presence. I’ve never been good with omega’s – but surely even a shitty alpha like me would affect an omega in heat some way? Or is it just me? Am I this fucking pathetic? God…’

Daniel washed his face with ice cold water in the kitchen sink and then pinched the soft skin in the inside of his upper arm hard in the hope of distracting himself from the way he was feeling. He wanted to help Rorschach and he wanted to be as respectful as possible despite his crush and his physical reactions to him. He just needed to calm down and remind himself that Rorschach was a friend in need and nothing else.

He prepared a ginger tea and two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Having steeled himself, he carried the tray into Rorschach’s bedroom. First, Daniel was hit by the smell that had by then become thick enough to be a little stifling. Then, he was hit by the sight: The masked vigilante was still sitting on the bed, except he had stripped down to his wife beater and pinstripe pants. Even the mask had been rolled up to rest over the bridge of his nose and Daniel’s newly regained resolve slipped away in an eyeblink. Rorschach’s pale, freckled skin was flushed and covered in a light film of sweat. His parted lips were reddened and swollen from being nervously nibbled on. When he noticed Daniel, he self-consciously hugged himself and averted his gaze. Daniel forced himself to look away as well and placed the tray with the mug of tea and food on the nightstand beside the bed. He kept his eyes lowered as he said, with as much control as he could muster: “I-I’ll be in my room, if you need anything, j-just call.”

Then he ran.

Later, as he lay in bed trying to ignore the persistent erection that had been bothering him ever since he had gotten the first whiff of Rorschach’s delicious scent, he wondered if the smaller man was doing okay, if he was… if he was pleasuring himself. And he wondered, if in that case, by any chance, he might be thinking of Daniel, being surrounded by his things and scent. He pinched himself a couple of times to the point he gave himself bruises, but the throbbing between his legs persisted. With a small desperate and frustrated sob he reached down into his pajama pants and gripped himself tightly, trying to will his erection away. He thought of what the rest of Rorschach’s body might look like under the wife beater and the pinstripe pants, he thought of what his flushed skin might feel like under his hands and what the sweet-smelling sweat of his heat might taste like. An image of thin, but strong legs spreading shyly to welcome his hips in between of them popped into his head before he could stop himself and he came hard with his fist squeezed painfully tight around his member. He looked at the ceiling with wide eyes and swallowed back angry tears.

When he awoke hours later, the arousal was back again. With a brain still muddled by sleep, it was easy to resume the thoughts he had tried so much to avoid before. Rorschach would be warm and wet for him and he would slip in easily. He would kiss him all over, mark his neck with possessive love bites, hold him close. Rorschach’s heat would be affecting him too strongly to allow him to be his usual stoic self. He would make the sweetest noises, like that one time a grizzly-bear-sized knot top pushed him down a set of stairs which had him whimpering oh so softly as he tried to stand up again with three cracked ribs.

Fuck… it was so wrong thinking of Rorschach that way, especially about a situation in which he had actually been worried sick about him at the time. What the hell was wrong with him?

Daniel kicked the sheets aside and climbed out of his bed. He went into the upper floor bathroom, and took a freezing cold shower until all hints of arousal left his body and he was shaking like a leaf. Only then, did he go downstairs and into the kitchen to make breakfast. He drank a strong coffee and half-heartedly ate some cereal himself, before preparing some scrambled eggs, toast and another cup of ginger tea for his guest. He was a little nervous about what he’d find once he opened the door of the guest bedroom, but he did so all the same after knocking and hearing an affirmative grunt from the other side.

The smell had gotten even thicker and sweeter. Daniel couldn’t help but lick his lips in the hope of getting a taste of it. Rorschach was lying under the sheets, still wearing his wife beater, but apparently having shed his pants during the early morning hours as they were slung over the back of the chair with the rest of his clothes. His narrow, but muscled upper body rose and fell quickly as he took short, labored breaths through an open mouth. He lolled his head from one side to the other as if he was in pain and curled slightly into himself.

“Hey, are you okay?” Daniel asked worriedly, replacing the empty tray of the night before with the new one filled with fresh food. He ignored the heat he felt in his groin when he noticed how Rorschach’s small knobby hands, with their bruised knuckles, where clenching and unclenching around the sheets.

“Fever clearly risen. M-muscle spasms and abdominal pain,” Rorschach croaked out. Daniel quietly lowered the empty tray on top of a dresser and hesitantly approached the ill-looking vigilante. If it weren’t for the very suggestive scent and the way his own body was reacting to it, he would’ve assumed Rorschach had simply gotten the flu. While he wasn’t an expert on the subject or anything, he was pretty certain most omegas felt more horny than sickly during their heat. He very slowly sat down at the edge of the bed, mostly, to not spook the agitated vigilante, but also to test the way the close proximity affected his already strained self-control. Once he was sure Rorschach had noticed his presence, but didn’t mind it, and once he was sure he himself wasn’t going to suddenly lunge at the smaller man and maul him alive, he reached out to touch Rorschach’s exposed stubbly cheek with the back of his hand. He was concerningly hot.

“Rorschach… did you… you know… did you _relieve_ yourself any?” he asked, feeling his cheeks burn in embarrassment and growing arousal. The masked vigilante was quiet for a few seconds, pushing his face against Daniel’s hand as if he was either seeking out the coolness it provided or trying to hide behind it.

“… never… depraved act… d-dirty.”

Daniel gaped.

“What do you mean ‘never’?! Rorschach, you’re an omega in heat, your body needs sexual release! If you’re not gonna share your heat with a partner you need to at least masturbate to get rid of the excessive hormones. No fucking wonder you’re burning up.”

“Was never as bad… before today.”

“God...”

The hand which had been resting against Rorschach’s cheek turned around the way it could cup his face. A thumb brushed gently against his cheekbone and the hem of the mask.

“Look, Rorschach… eat a little and then… then I’m gonna help you relax a little – I don’t know, just a back rub or something, okay? Just something to help with the muscle spasms and the pain. And then you _have_ to jerk off. How is it depraved and dirty? It’s the most natural thing in the world and if you don’t wanna enjoy it, then at least think about it in a practical way… would you prefer your brain to fry up?”

“Hurm.”

Rorschach’s hands were shaking so badly that Daniel had to help him eat and drink his breakfast. The vigilante was uncharacteristically complacent through the whole ordeal, probably feeling too sickly and weak to put up much of a fight when Daniel brought small pieces of toast and eggs to his mouth and held a supportive hand underneath a mug clenched between spasming fingers. The closeness, the strong scent filling his nose and the way Rorschach was allowing him to tend to him was killing Daniel on the inside, but at the same time he felt the calmest he had felt ever since he had discovered Rorschach was an omega. Once Rorschach refused any more food, Daniel pushed the tray away and tentatively ran a very gentle hand down the smaller man’s arm. For a second, he feared he was gonna get punched for it, but Rorschach only shivered and made a pathetic little noise that sounded like he was trying not to cry.

“Shh… it’s okay,” Daniel hushed, risking a more comfortable position which allowed him to lie propped up against the headboard and pull Rorschach into his arms. The compact little body he was holding seemed to tense up and spasm even worse for a while, small hands clawing at his chest and shoulders like they couldn’t decide if they wanted to hurt him or pull him closer. Daniel rubbed Rorschach’s upper arm in slow, up and down motions until the masked vigilante noticeably relaxed. He was painfully hard and had to swallow frequently to keep check of an unusual amount of saliva and the irrational urge to bite something, but kept being surprisingly calm otherwise. He focused on how soft Rorschach’s skin felt, despite the rough scars crisscrossing entire sections of it. He glided a hand upwards to cradle Rorschach’s head and tilted it gently to the side, before burying his face in the exposed skin of his neck. God, he smelled so good. Daniel couldn’t help but nuzzle him and pull him closer against himself. He wished he could hold Rorschach like this forever, cover him in kisses and caresses, but he knew the only reason the other vigilante was allowing this in the first place, was because he was too out of it to push him away.

“Rorschach… do you care about me? Trust me?” he asked, a soft whisper directly into Rorschach’s ear. The masked vigilante had become putty in his hands, leaning fully against him with only the occasional shiver going through his otherwise lax body. Even his hands lay relaxed, one in his own lap, the other pressing warmly against Daniel’s thigh.

“You’re a good man, Daniel…” was the tentative reply. “Trust you with my life on a daily basis.”

Daniel sighed softly, pulling back a little when Rorschach shivered and turned his concealed face in his direction. His lips where parted and moist, and it took all of Daniel’s willpower not to lean in and kiss them. He tore his gaze away from them and opted to hide his face against the side of Rorschach’s head instead.

“Then, please, trust me on this… m-masturbate.”

Rorschach’s head moved and it took Daniel a moment to realize he was nodding his head. He was so glad that the smaller man was being reasonable, that he planted a small and chaste kiss on his jaw and then pulled away because he felt he was about to exhaust the last bit of self-control he had left. He released Rorschach and climbed out of bed, noticing the alarmed noise he uttered and the slightly panicked way he went back to clasping the sheets between his fingers.

“I-I’ll just leave you t-to it then…” he explained. There was nothing he wished more than to remain with his fellow crimefighter, but he knew that if he stayed one minute longer, he was inevitably going to do something he’d regret and which would hurt Rorschach in ways the other vigilante would never forgive him for. He picked up both trays and glanced back for a last time, before leaving the room. He tried not to think about the way Rorschach had started shaking again or how he had pulled his legs up close, looking even smaller and frailer all alone in the king-sized bed of the guest bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the first part of this fanfic. If you feel like it, leave kudos or a comment - feedback is always very appreciated!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeeeaaah... just warning you that this fanfiction is pretty much just smut from here on... I'm ashamed and sorry. I wish I could say this fanfic has a plot and stuff, but I'd be exaggerating by a great deal. Anyway, I really enjoyed writing it because I'm a sap and really enjoy reading and writing gentle sex. I hope this isn't too cringeworthy and you somewhat enjoy yourself too.

Daniel tried to clean the kitchen to distract himself, but it was no use – he simply couldn’t stop thinking about Rorschach. He knew that this time, no freezing cold shower or amount of self-mutilation would help against the painful hardness between his legs. When he went to the bathroom to take care of the issue in a quick and clean way, he was shocked to find that his knot had partially formed. He couldn’t even remember the last time that had happened.

‘Fuck… Rorschach, what are you doing to me?’ he thought near tears, as he replayed the past one and a half hours over and over in his head while he roughly stroked himself. It took him nearly no time at all to come, and when he did, his knot swelled up the rest of the way, throbbing painfully in the rhythm of his racing heart. It took ten agonizing minutes for the tender gland to finally go down again, at which point Daniel cleaned himself up and adjusted his clothes, before going downstairs in the basement to try and keep himself occupied with some new projects he had been working on lately. Having allowed himself to come, even if the orgasm had been more painful than pleasant, he actually managed to focus on something else rather than the thought of how Rorschach was probably pleasing himself just two floors above him. He managed to lose himself in his work enough to forget the time for a while.

Hours later, he was still so absorbed in what he was doing, that it took him a moment to notice a certain smell slowly spreading out in the Owl Nest. When he did, his interest towards the electroshocking defense system he was developing for his Nite Owl suit was instantly gone though. His mouth started watering and he turned towards the source of the alluring scent, which just so happened to be a barely standing Rorschach, wearing his wife beater and pinstripe pants once again, taking slow, unsteady steps down the stairs. He was gripping the railing like his life depended on it.

“Jeez, Rorschach… you don’t look very well,” Daniel remarked, hastily standing up to reach and support the other vigilante.

“Can’t do it, Daniel,” Rorschach said, and he sounded broken and desperate. “Can’t do it. Tried. Feels wrong – bad. Very bad. Painful too.”

A small frustrated sob escaped Rorschach’s lips as he let go of the railing to instead grab fistfuls of Daniel’s sweater in his badly shaking hands. The larger man found himself trembling as well, simply because he couldn’t bear to see Rorschach in such a state of distress. Daniel enclosed him in his arms gently, cradling his head against his chest, and gingerly kissed its latex-covered top in the hope it’d calm him down.

“Hey, it’s alright-”

“Fever risen… can barely – barely think straight… Daniel-”

“Shh… don’t worry, it’s gonna be okay – I’m gonna help you, okay? I'm gonna help you do it, Rorschach… everything’s gonna be alright – I promise.”

Even though the words had left Daniel’s mouth before he had really thought them through and he instantly regretted saying them, furious at himself for finally cracking and offering something like that, they seemed to have a soothing effect on Rorschach, who noticeably relaxed. Daniel attentively guided him back upstairs and back into the guest bedroom, where he sat him down at the edge of the bed. His hands were shaking when he helped the other vigilante take off his pinstripe pants again, noting how his underpants were tented and wet, the skin on the insides of his thighs glistering with moisture. He was so aroused by the sight that he could barely restrain himself from doing something that was bound to scare Rorschach off, like biting into his leg and tasting the sweet-smelling slick clinging to it. He forced himself to take a couple of slow and deep breaths in the hope that it would clear his head a little, but the scent, combined with the visible evidence of Rorschach’s arousal and the soft distressed whimpers leaving the masked vigilante’s mouth were making him frantic.

“It’s okay…” Daniel reassured Rorschach, as much as himself. He carefully guided Rorschach back against the mattress and then slowly lay down himself, the way the smaller man was lying half beneath him. Rorschach reached up to hold onto Daniel’s back and pull him closer until they were basically chest to chest. Daniel used one arm to brace himself against the bed over Rorschach’s head to avoid putting his full weight on him and his free hand to caress his cheek. “It’s okay…” he repeated, barely a whisper, and then leaned in to gently kiss Rorschach’s lips. It took a little while of coaxing, but at some point, the other vigilante started to tentatively push his mouth back against Daniel’s. Small pecks were exchanged, until the chaste kissing turned a little hotter, a little damper, as lips parted to share open mouthed kisses. Daniel tentatively nudged Rorschach’s tongue with his own, who exhaled sharply, but then hesitantly returned the gesture. He tasted sweet, like the amounts of sugar he consumed on a daily basis, though, Daniel was aware he probably tasted so good to him due to sexual pheromones. As he licked and gently nibbled on Rorschach’s bottom lip, he let his hand slip down and rub soothing circles into the smaller man’s upper body through his wife beater. He was trembling in pleasure under his hands already and Daniel felt a hopeless wave of affection wash over him as he swallowed the weak moans that the other vigilante released into his mouth. He pulled back to take his glasses off and placed them on the nightstand, before nosing the underside of Rorschach’s jaw and biting gently along the curve of his neck. He tentatively brushed the sliver of skin right along the hem of Rorschach’s wife beater with his fingertips and when there was no indication that he should stop, he slipped his hand underneath it. He massaged the masked vigilante’s wiry upper body for a while, peppering the exposed parts of his face, his neck and shoulders with small, but hungry kisses. His nipples where stiff and he caressed them gently with the palm of his hand and teased them with the tips of his fingers. He stopped only when Rorschach released a frustrated growl while pulling at his sweater, clearly meaning to take it off. He helped him pull it off and then lay back down next to the smaller man.

“Rorschach, I just wanted you to know, t-that I’ve wanted this for a long time, even – even before,” Daniel confessed, using both arms to hold the other vigilante close, burying his face in his neck. Rorschach ran his fingers through Daniel’s thick hair and gave him more room to nuzzle and kiss his jaw and neck.

“Have wanted this too...” he revealed in a barely audible, breathless whisper.

Daniel pulled back to stare at the swirling inkblots on Rorschach’s face in surprise and then smiled brightly. He leaned in to kiss him joyfully and intertwined their fingers, pushing their clasped hands gently against the mattress. He used his thumbs to caress Rorschach’s fingers and slowly let his hands glide along his wrists and arms as he lowered himself to nibble on Rorschach’s neck again. His instincts kept pulling him back there, urging him to bite and mark – claim Rorschach, even though nobody had the right to do so. Rorschach’s dedication lay to justice and the city of New York – he knew he couldn’t compete with that… So, in the end, he managed to restrain himself every time his mouth watered a little too much and his teeth became a little bit too insistent with their “playful” bites. Rorschach didn’t seem to mind the attention he was getting though, if the panting, shivering, and the way he was encouragingly offering more of his neck to maul were any indication.

Daniel very slowly reached down and tentatively rubbed the hardness between Rorschach’s legs through his underwear. A small, pained whimper escaped the masked vigilante’s mouth and he reflexively pushed his pelvis upwards and firmer against Daniel’s hand. Encouraged, Daniel slipped his hand underneath damp fabric to enclose around the hot, pulsating flesh there, and gently massaged it. When Rorschach’s whimpers and moans became more frequent and started to sound more pleased than pained, Daniel dared to push his underpants down and out of the way. Once they reached his knees, Rorschach hesitated only a moment before kicking them off and then impatiently started to pull at Daniel’s slacks as well. Getting the message, he discarded his pants and underwear too, took a moment to help Rorschach out of his wife beater, and then settled down against his side. Feeling the smaller man’s naked skin against his own was nearly too much for an eyeblink, his breath stuttering and his heart trying to break out of his ribcage. Therefore, he spent the next couple of minutes simply lying with the other man, caressing the scars marring the skin of his chest and enjoying the way Rorschach’s hands started to gingerly explore his thickly muscled upper body as well after a while. When he finally felt composed enough, he resumed gently stroking Rorschach’s manhood, which had his legs eventually falling apart a little, unconsciously offering more room. Daniel leaned over him to kiss him again. Tentatively, his hand slipped even lower and through hot moisture. It took only little pressure to breach Rorschach with one finger and as he pushed it deeper into him, up to the last knuckle, he could feel Rorschach clamp down on it hard, accompanied by a soft, high-pitched moan.

“Daniel,” he whimpered against his mouth, gently scratching along his broad back, pulling his hair – tilting his hips upwards, silently begging for more. A second finger was already met with more resistance, but Daniel patiently worked him open until he could move his fingers freely back and forth, and deeper into Rorschach’s too warm body. After a few minutes of careful exploration, he found his prostate and started to rub it gently but insistently with the tip of his fingers, prompting Rorschach to jump up with a shocked gasp.

“Shh… it’s okay, just let yourself go,” Daniel hushed soothingly, when his crimefighting partner started tossing about, clearly overwhelmed by the intense stimulation. Rorschach tried to settle down and relax, but his chest kept rising and falling as he took heavy, labored breaths and tried to bite back moans and whimpers. His fingernails buried themselves in Daniel’s shoulders, leaving angry trails of red in their stead, as they were pulled along the curve of the larger man’s back. Daniel squeezed his eyes shut in pleasure, leaning his brow against the side of Rorschach’s head and biting down on his bottom lip to not do it anywhere else on the other vigilante’s body. He kept stimulating the sensitive gland until Rorschach became more and more vocal and eventually cried out brokenly, as the hot walls gripping Daniel’s fingers contracted hard around them in a rhythmical pattern. He gently worked Rorschach through his seemingly very intense orgasm, before carefully pulling his fingers out of him, and then reached down instead to stroke his own achingly hard member with a slick-covered hand. He groaned against Rorschach’s jaw when he realized his knot had swollen up again and rubbed himself another handful of times before coming hard against Rorschach’s belly, adding to the mess already there. His knot inflated even more and Daniel enclosed his fist around it, pretending the warm, damp skin of his hand was the other vigilante’s body. He hid his sweaty face in the curve of Rorschach’s neck and tried to regain his breath while waiting for the tender gland at the base of his still stiff manhood to subside.

Shortly later, he was startled awake from his doze by a muffled sob. He stirred, braced himself on weak arms as he pushed himself off the bed to look for the source of the unsettling noises of distress. Rorschach was lying stiffly beside him, with the back of one hand wiping away trails of tears from a cheek and the other hand stifling the noises coming from his mouth. Daniel felt the blood in his veins freeze.

“Oh my God, Rorschach, did – did I hurt you? Did I do something wrong?”

He quickly scrambled onto his knees and leaned over the other vigilante. His hands hovered over him, wanting to touch, hold, comfort, but too afraid of actually doing it. Why was Rorschach crying? Had he misinterpreted everything? Had he forced himself on him? He covered his mouth with a shaky hand at the thought and felt his eyes prickle with tears. If he had hurt Rorschach in any way, he was never going to forgive himself.

“Rorschach, please, talk to me,” Daniel begged, finally giving in and tentatively running a hand down the smaller man’s shoulder. Rorschach shrugged it off and struggled into a sitting position, pulling his legs closer to his body to cover himself up a little.

Then he grabbed the hem of his mask and unceremoniously took it off.

It was silent for a long time, as Daniel just kneeled there, completely indifferent to his own state of undress as he just stared and stared and stared with wide eyes. Rorschach’s face wasn’t beautiful: It was gaunt – his cheeks were hollow. His nose was slightly crooked from having healed wrongly after a break. His red hair was much brighter than Daniel had imagined it to be and stuck out in all directions despite being damp with sweat. Rorschach sniffed, before raising his gaze with an air of defeat. His red-rimmed eyes were very blue.

Daniel thought he was perfect.

He offered a small, shy smile and reached out to pull the other man closer. His smile faltered and he hesitated when he was met with resistance, but Rorschach eventually shifted closer, letting his head fall heavily against his shoulder, where he could hide his fully exposed face in the crook of Daniel’s neck. Daniel held the smaller man with one arm and used his free hand to run it through Rorschach’s red curls for the first time. They were soft.

“Walter Kovacs,” stated the red-haired vigilante softly, slowly encircling Daniel’s broad ribcage with his arms.

“Walter,” Daniel tried out. Rorschach’s arms tightened around him.

They simply held each other for a long time, eventually lying back down with Rorschach – Walter – slightly on top of him. Daniel pulled the blanket over them, when he noticed that the red-haired vigilante wasn’t quite as hot anymore and had started to shiver lightly. He kept leaning slightly back to glance at his face and kiss his brow or temple, letting his fingers run through vivid red hair over and over again. Walter was relaxed if not exhausted, temporarily freed from his heat’s symptoms after having recently found some sexual relief. He traced invisible patterns along Daniel’s chest and arm until his bright blue eyes couldn’t keep open anymore. Daniel watched him sleep for a while, charmed by how much softer Walter’s features became when he wasn’t scowling. He cupped his cheek, cradled his head against his shoulder and leaned his cheek against the top of it. Then he allowed himself to slip into sleep as well.

When he awoke, not too much later, he was alone in the room. He bolted upright with a start, irrationally nervous about not knowing where the other vigilante was. He put on his glasses and earlier carelessly discarded clothes, then headed to the kitchen, hypothesizing that Rorschach might have awoken feeling hungry or at least thirsty after the straining physical state and activities he had gone through. He noticed he himself was feeling similarly. Rorschach wasn’t in the kitchen, however, there were two empty cans of beans and a handful of sugar cube wrappers lying around on the table as a clear sign he had indeed been there at some point. Daniel picked up everything and threw it in the trash, before continuing his search for the smaller man and heading to the lower floor bathroom. It was locked and he could hear the noise of the shower running from inside it. He sighed in relief, calming instantly down now that he knew Rorschach was just taking a shower. He assumed not even Rorschach wanted to walk around with dry semen flaking off his abdomen. He went back to the kitchen to get some food himself and settled on Chinese leftovers from the day before. He was more or less done eating by the time the door to the bathroom opened and a fully clothed and masked Rorschach emerged from the steam. Daniel gaped, slowly lowering the almost empty box of food and the fork from his mouth.

“Leaving now. Thanks for hospitability and assistance,” Rorschach said, when he noticed Daniel sitting at the kitchen table, then headed straight towards the door to the basement. It took Daniel a moment to react.

“What?!” he cried out in disbelief, carelessly dropping everything on the table and almost pushing the chair he was sitting on over when he jumped to his feet. “No way – your heat isn’t over yet! What if you feel sick again – what if somebody tries to hurt you? It’s not even dark outside – are you just gonna walk around in full attire in the middle of the day?”

“Fever went down, feel much better now. Head… clear again. Gonna use less populated alleys and change clothes before reaching home. Can take care of myself, Daniel.”

“So, that’s it, then? You come once and think that’s enough to get you through your whole heat? You were burning up! Could barely stand on your own! The way you feel right now is not gonna last for long, it’s not even been a full day!”

“Indulging primitive physical urges is wrong. Dirty. Did what I felt was necessary at the time, will not do more than that. Makes weak-willed. Have had heats before, Daniel, always survived on my own. Familiar alpha presence only worsened condition. Should have never happened, compromised partnership.”

“B-but I thought… you said – you said, you’ve wanted this too! You – you showed me your face for God’s sake, told me your name! And now you want me to believe none of it meant anything?!”

Now the chair really did fall over, as Daniel agitatedly strode over to where Rorschach was standing near the basement door. The masked vigilante visibly tensed up, turned away and reached out for the door handle. Daniel wrapped his arms around him from behind, pulling him away from the door and back against his chest. He was ready for Rorschach to struggle, hit him, push him away – something. To his surprise, Rorschach did neither.

“Rorschach…” Daniel softly whimpered, nuzzling the back of the other man’s neck, nosing the exposed sliver of skin which had been his undoing what felt like ages ago by now. The scent was still strong, still delicious. Daniel swallowed back tears. “Walter. Please.”

Rorschach shivered lightly, letting himself relax against the larger man’s chest for a couple of silent seconds. Daniel could feel his heart beat fast against the palm he had lying heavily right on top of it. He was certain Rorschach could feel his too, with their chest and back pressed so close together. The masked vigilante turned his head a little, the way his latex covered cheek rested against Daniel’s.

“See you on patrol,” he softly said, his voice devoid of the usual growl. Then he gently freed himself from Daniel’s embrace and disappeared through the basement door, leaving the apartment. Daniel stood there, speechless and unable to move, staring at the door with longing. He sighed deeply, his breath shaky, ran a hand through his mussed-up hair and forced himself to leave the hallway and go back into the kitchen, where he cleaned up the mess he had left behind. Then he went and took a shower, tried to get over the way his heart was aching by focusing on his suit enhancement project for another few hours. Even when time for patrol approached, Rorschach did not show up like he usually did. He did not show up at all. So, Daniel slipped into the Nite Owl suit and embarked with Archie on his own, trying to ignore all the thoughts and feelings involving what had happened between him and the other vigilante. He especially tried to push away the all-consuming worry that was making him physically sick. Had Rorschach made it home alright? Had the next heat-wave hit as hard as the first one? Had the fever picked up again? Had he actually taken care of himself this time or stubbornly refused to relieve his body from its needs?

He kept an eye out for Rorschach the whole night, but even after having interfered between two muggings, an attempted rape and a small gang brawl, he had still seen no trace of him. He decided to call it an early night since his near constant distraction was making him careless and clumsy anyway. His worry for Rorschach was about to give him an ulcer. He arrived home feeling worse than he had in a long time. His body hurt from hits he had not bothered to block and which had managed to bruise even through the Kevlar. His stomach was a turmoil of anxiety. He could not stop thinking about Rorschach and tried to tell himself that the man had simply decided to be reasonable for once and stayed home to safely go through his heat like a sane human being would. He was so desperate he nearly believed it.

Out of his Nite Owl suit and inside a cozy jogging suit, he made his way upstairs with a grim expression on his face. He came to a sudden halt when he opened the door to his apartment and was hit in the face by the alluring scent of Rorschach’s heat. He gulped in lungfuls of the sweet-smelling air, before quietly closing the door behind him. His heart started to beat faster and despite the worry he still felt, he began to harden a little. He simply ignored it, being more interested in Rorschach’s safety and well-being than the way biology made his body react to him. He found Rorschach’s gloves, fedora, scarf and trench coat between the basement door and the stairs which led upstairs and his breath caught in his throat when he noticed how much blood clung to the coat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohhhh, what happened to Rorschach?! I'll update soon. Thanks for reading and I hope you liked this part of "Feverish". As always, feedback is very appreciated!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloo guuys, I'm back with more ~~trash~~ drama and smut. ... I probably shouldn't write this kind of stuff anymore.

“Rorschach?!” Daniel called in alarm, leaping up the stairs in record time. There was another trail of clothes in the hallway between the stairs and the guest room: Dress shoes, pinstripe suit jacket and waistcoat, tie and dress shirt – all of them devoid of any blood stains, not that Daniel was paying any attention anymore. Pinstripe pants, a wife beater and socks lead right to the entrance of his own bedroom and Daniel’s foot got caught in a pair of suspenders as he burst through the half-closed door. He managed to catch himself at the foot of the bed, cursing loudly, and then slowly let his gaze wander up over the blanket-covered figure occupying it. Rorschach lay in Daniel’s bed, belly-down, with his arms curled tightly around Daniel’s pillow and his masked head mushed into it. He sluggishly turned a little on his side and looked back over his shoulder at the commotion, revealing that he had rolled up his mask up to the bridge of his nose. The inkblots widened and then dissolved into splatters of black as the two men simply stared at each other for a long, silent moment. The air was hot and stifling in there, thick with Rorschach’s pheromones.

“A-are you okay, Rorschach? I saw the blood on your coat and –“

“Not my blood.”

Daniel freed himself from the murderous suspenders and slowly climbed onto the bed, hesitating a little before crawling closer to the other vigilante, sitting down once they were close enough to touch.

“… fuck, I’m so relieved. I’ve been worried sick all night – went on patrol and couldn’t find you anywhere. I was so afraid something had happened to you. I’m glad you’re here,” he recounted, his voice heavy with emotion. He sheepishly glanced towards the other man and frowned when he noticed the pattern of bruises littering his exposed shoulder and upper arm. He was pretty certain they hadn’t been there hours ago. Rorschach, probably feeling how he was being stared at, slowly turned on his back and sat up a little. The upright position made the sheets slip lower and reveal even more bruises and scratches along his chest and sides. He seemed to be having a hard time staying upright if the way his arms were trembling while holding up his upper body was any indication. Daniel’s heart fell into his stomach.

“Stop worrying,” Rorschach weakly scolded, as if he could read his thoughts. “Am fine. Got in a confrontation, but made assaulters regret it. Told you I could take care of myself. Not exactly a damsel in distress after all.”

Despite Rorschach’s reassuring words, Daniel stayed tense. He kept picturing rough hands clawing and groping his crimefighting partner’s minute body, trying to subdue him, tearing at his clothes. His fists clenched around the blanket.

“Daniel,” whimpered Rorschach, breaking through the terrible images in his head. He reached out with one unsteady hand and Daniel quickly shifted closer, pulling the smaller man into his arms. He tenderly rubbed Rorschach’s slightly protruding spine and ribs in soothing circular motions and took note of how burning hot his clammy skin felt beneath his palms once again. Rorschach’s hands slowly ran up Daniel’s chest and slipped around his neck. One of them buried itself in brown locks, while the other pulled him closer by the back of his neck, urging him to lower his head. Clumsy, inexperienced lips sought out his and Daniel gasped in pleasant surprise, before gently kissing the vigilante in his arms back. The longer they hugged and kissed, the more aware Daniel became of the erection he had not been paying attention to so far. Rorschach’s earlier rejection was still lingering in the back of his mind though, and with a lot of self-restraint, he managed to pull slightly away, separating their lips in the process. He leaned his forehead against a latex-covered one instead and panted against Rorschach’s stubbled cheeks, as he heavy- heartedly evaded the sweet little kisses the smaller man kept trying to place on his mouth.

“Rorschach… are you sure you won’t regret this?” he softly asked, releasing a shaky exhale when the masked vigilante managed to gently bite into his lower lip. He tugged at it lightly with his teeth and then licked over the weak indents, pointedly ignoring Daniel’s question. Daniel forced himself to pull away fully, turning around. He sat at the edge of the bed, agitatedly running hands through his hair and then burying his face in them as he sighed deeply, trying to calm down. It was not easy to resist Rorschach in the state they were both in.

Tense minutes passed, until Rorschach tentatively touched his hunched over back. He slowly wrapped his arms around his broad chest from behind, quivering like a leaf and breathing like he was on the verge of tears. Daniel could feel cool latex and overheated skin against the back of his neck.

“Have – have never felt this way before. Used to be so easy… never wanted nor needed anything – anybody. Met you, now, each heat gets worse. Can’t stop thinking about – about you, Daniel… slowly driving me insane. Don’t want to be… a whore, like mother before me. But it’s not just the physical urges. Have a strong emotional attachment to you. Have had for a while. Tried not to compromise our partnership despite feelings. Too good to lose over something like this… Failed miserably in the past twenty-four hours.” Rorschach sniffled, rubbing his face against Daniel’s hair. The trembling had gotten worse and his hands were clinging to Daniel’s tracksuit top like he was afraid the larger man would leave. “Don’t know what to do anymore,” he concluded, initiating a heavy silence.

“Jeez, Rorschach…” Daniel whispered after a while, swallowing back tears. He pushed up his glasses to wipe away some of the moisture gathered at the corner of his eyes and sniffled as well. He slowly turned in Rorschach’s embrace. “Nothing can ever be easy with you, can it? I’m not just reacting to your heat… what I said – I meant it. I’ve wanted this for a long time… I’ve been in love with you forever… You really never realized, with – with the way I act around you?”

He slowly reached up with both hands and thumbed the edge of the inkblot mask. Rorschach’s hands instinctively shot up, encircled his wrists and pulled them away from his face. He seemed to mull over his own reaction, before cupping Daniel’s hands with his own and letting them cradle his face. They carefully pushed off the mask together, revealing Walter’s bright blue eyes and vivid red hair. Daniel smiled softly and gently brushed back the unruly red locks above Rorschach’s ear. The smaller man was content to let his face and hair be petted for a while, then tugged at Daniel’s arms until he climbed back into bed and half on top of him.

“O-okay, wait,” Daniel breathed, somewhat taken aback, when the redhead urgently pulled him fully on top of him with a small desperate noise, arching off the mattress to mouth along his jaw. “Easy…” he added soothingly, since Walter was tearing at his clothes like he wanted to rip them off his body. He had some difficulty getting rid of his jogging suit and glasses with Walter’s hands getting in the way all the time, but they somehow managed to strip him down to his underwear anyway. He lied down next to the other vigilante, leaning over him to kiss his pliant lips. He let the hand he wasn’t bracing himself against the mattress with run down his side and then back up again to massage his stomach and chest. He pulled away a little to peak down at the bruises marring Walter’s flushed and damp skin and traced a particularly bad one on the smaller man’s hip tenderly with his fingers.

“Please, don’t make me worry like this ever again,” he pleaded, shifting backwards to place a soft kiss on top of it. Walter gasped and reached down to run his hands through Daniel’s hair, letting them curl around the back of his head. Encouraged by the other man’s reaction, Daniel did the same to the other bruises, trailing his lips all along Walter’s hip, ribs and shoulder until he reached his neck. He nuzzled it and buried his nose in the hair behind Walter’s ear, where the delicious scent was particularly thick. The redhead turned his head to give more room and gently raked his fingernails down Daniel’s back. He moaned softly when Daniel sucked a small hickey into the side of his neck. It was a poor substitution for what Daniel’s instincts kept telling him to do, but even after Walter’s confession, he had no right to take advantage of his vulnerable state and force him into a committed relationship with him… With that in mind, he licked the new bruise tenderly and then kissed and nibbled his way upwards until his mouth was met with enthusiasm by Walter’s.

As they kept kissing and nibbling, caressing, rubbing and gently scratching each other all over for a very long time, Daniel noticed that Walter had started to have noticeably frequent full-body shivers and make these soft little noises like he was in pain. He worriedly pulled away a bit and gazed down at the smaller man’s face. His eyes were heavy lidded, glassy and the pupils blown so wide, there was almost none of the beautiful blue left to see. They still stood out starkly among the blushed skin surrounding them. He tentatively let his hand slip lower along Walter’s belly and slightly into his briefs, letting his fingers trail along their hem. He glanced down just in time to see the other vigilante shyly spread his legs wider, and gulped. The sight was enough to remind him of how painfully aroused he himself was.

“C-come on,” he softly said. “Let’s get you out of these.” He sat back on his heels and slowly pulled Walter’s underwear off, who helpfully raised his hips. His manhood was resting against his belly, heavy and flushed dark with blood, and he was very wet, going by the streaks of moisture on the insides of his thighs. Daniel shakily inhaled the scent of slick, wanting to bury his face between Walter’s legs and find out what he tasted like, make him squirm in pleasure for hours. He forced himself to tear his eyes away and crawl back up, not wanting to risk doing something the other vigilante wasn’t ready for and make him uncomfortable in any way. Maybe – maybe if things turned out alright and they were more familiar with each other in this way – they could do that and more someday. Daniel pulled his own underwear down and quickly kicked it off before settling down against Walter’s side again. Small, knobby hands clawed at his skin impatiently, trying to pull him on top of the other man. Daniel groaned, his well-meant self-restraint starting to crumble in the face of Walter’s urgency. He reached between the redhead’s legs and caressed the hot wetness there, eliciting a soft, broken cry from the other vigilante. He was slick and pliant, taking two of his fingers easily as he gently pushed them into him. He worked him open for a while anyway, relishing in the whimpers and moans he could pull out of Walter simply by crooking his fingers a little and letting them brush against his prostate. All the while, he sprinkled his shoulder, neck and face with damp, open-mouthed kisses.

He gasped in shock against Walter’s chin, when a trembling hand carefully enclosed around his throbbing member. Fingertips lightly trailed along its length, lingered at the base of it where his knot had already partly developed. Daniel leaned his brow against the other man’s temple and whimpered as his swollen gland was fingered gently, the touch more curious than seducing. Daniel shifted a little, bracing himself against the bed next to Walter’s head and followed his gaze downwards to where Walter had started to slowly pump his fist up and down along his achingly hard flesh. They both watched their working hands for a while, until Daniel carefully pulled his fingers out of the redhead’s body to enclose his hand around the one stroking him closer and closer to orgasm. He squeezed gently to stop the pleasant up and down motion and then entwined their fingers, pushing Walter’s hand gently back against the mattress beside his head. They gazed at each other, flushed, sweaty and panting heavily, before kissing deeply. Daniel unconsciously nudged Walter’s hips with his own and lowered them between the other vigilante’s legs when they slowly opened wider in invitation. It took a while of rubbing against each other with increasingly jerkier movements and Daniel accidentally almost slipping into a slicker and slicker Walter, for Daniel to realize what they were doing.

“Fuck, wait… is – is this alright?” he breathlessly asked, after tearing his mouth away from Walter’s and propping himself up on his elbows.

“… yes,” the latter simply replied, urging him closer again with needy hands and a soft, frustrated growl.

They went back to kissing enthusiastically for a moment, until Daniel hastily pulled away again, sitting back on his heels, suddenly remembering:

“Wait – wait, we should probably… we should probably use protection then, you know, unless you want a kid.” Even in the state he was in, Walter gaped at him with an appalled expression on his face and Daniel couldn’t help, but chuckle. “Yeah, me neither.”

He reached out to get an unopened box of condoms he had bought earlier that year from the nightstand drawer, when he had been particularly optimistic after getting to know a cute omega in a coffeeshop. Needless to say, it had not exactly worked out the way he had hoped it might. He couldn’t stop thinking about Rorschach during their first serious date, for one. He opened the box and inspected the insides, randomly fishing out one of the small packages.

‘Jeez, when was the last time I had to put one of these on’, he thought, when he had some difficulty rolling the oiled latex over his length.

“Daniel,” whined Walter, reminding him to hurry. Daniel allowed himself a moment to take in how he was spread out in front of him anyway, with his hands clenching and unclenching around the sheets and his parted and slightly angled legs trembling and twitching in anticipation. At Daniel’s lack of action, Walter closed his eyes and rolled his head back with a broken whimper, his chest rising quickly up and down as he gulped in labored, raspy breaths. Daniel didn’t think twice before throwing himself on top of the redhead with a low growl and guiding himself into the, by then, dripping wet opening between his legs. He pushed inside slowly and carefully, but steadily without any breaks. He noticed his knot was already swelling up and groaned against Walter’s cheek, pushing further and further until even the still smallish bump at the base of his member slipped into the other man’s burning hot body.

Walter clenched around him, making sweet, needy noises that ranged from high-pitched whimpers to low growls. Daniel pushed himself up and braced himself on his arms to make sure his sudden uncharacteristic burst of alphaness hadn’t hurt the other man. He offered a small reassuring smile when their gazes met. Walter just stared up at him with heavy lidded eyes, his parted lips red and swollen from having been bitten on to try to hold back some of the noises he couldn’t help making. Daniel gently detached the hands which had been clawing into his shoulders, breaking the skin with their fingernails and leaving behind bloody welts, and intertwined them with his own once again, before pushing them back against the bed over Walter’s head. He felt Walter’s hips tentatively push back against his and his legs angling even further, the way his his thighs were resting against Daniel’s waist, and quickly leaned in to devour the little noises the masked vigilante was making from finally being filled deeply and fully, the way his body had unconsciously been craving from the very beginning of his heat. He carefully started moving inside of the body beneath his, feeling hot, wet flesh gripping him tightly. It felt so good that he couldn’t help but whimper as he repeated the motion, slowly trusting in and out of Walter, whose hands were gripping his tightly and his pelvis meeting his every time he pushed back into him.

Daniel released the smaller man’s hands to find more leverage against the mattress and nosed along Walter’s neck. His thrusts became slightly more forceful, prompting the redhead to enclose his arms around his shoulders and hold on tightly as his body was slightly pushed up and down the mattress.

“Daniel,” he panted. “Yes…”

Daniel whined low in his throat, open-mouthedly kissed and nibbled Walter’s chin, jaw and neck, before not so gently biting into the latter. He gasped in shock against the sweet skin in his mouth and forced himself to release it before he could bite any deeper. He was horrified at how he had lost control and almost claimed the other vigilante without his consent. He swallowed the abundant amount of saliva his mouth had produced in anticipation and licked his lips. He felt mortified to the point his arousal was starting to ebb away a little, but Walter’s repeated and desperate “don’t stop” were enough to prompt him into starting to gently rock their bodies together again.

“I love you, Rorschach…,” he felt important to remind him, breathing it hotly into the redhead’s ear, when his thrusting picked up on speed, encouraged by the way that the other vigilante had begun to clamp down on him. He came hard after another couple of thrusts and felt his knot swell up fully, locking him tightly inside Walter’s intensely contracting body. An astonished and slightly frightened cry escaped the smaller man’s lips when he was stretched almost wider than he could bear, but Daniel was quick to pepper small apologetic kisses all over his face, mumbling gentle reassurances and encouragements. Eventually Walter calmed down, settling down against the mattress, but Daniel kept petting his hair and the side of his face nonetheless, until their hearts and breathing had slowed down to an almost usual pattern.

“How long?” the redhead asked with a soft and raspy voice, at that point. He glanced down at where their bodies where joined with a bemused expression on his face and tried to shift into a more comfortable position. He winced.

“Y-yeah, sorry, it usually lasts ten to fifteen minutes for me,” Daniel replied. “I’ve never… I’ve never knotted anybody before. I don’t know if it takes shorter or longer like this.” He gently ran a hand along one of the thighs resting against his hips and pulled it up a little higher against his waist, alleviating some of the pressure around his knot by pushing himself deeper into the man beneath him. Walter gasped sharply, his eyes squeezing shut as he rolled his head back. Daniel leaned in to tenderly kiss the bruises on the other vigilante’s neck which were fully on display with his head thrown back like that. He regretfully wondered if Walter had noticed what he had almost done, or if he had been too befuddled by the heat fever to really pay attention.

“Hurm. Have never engaged in any kind sexual activity with another person before. Rarely felt sexual need and have even more rarely indulged in it. Always felt… repulsive.”

Daniel was not surprised to hear that Walter had still been a virgin. He had indeed never hinted at having a sexual drive and belittled anybody else, who somehow exhibited their sexuality, especially women and omegas. He used to think that the inkblot-mask vigilante was simply misogynic and omegaphobic, but now that he thought about it, Walter had always been very respectful towards women and omegas, as long as they weren’t being sexual towards him or anybody else in any way. He was an omega himself, for God’s sake. It was obvious there was way more behind Walter’s aversion to sex, but it had always been difficult to tell, before, because he never spoke of anything regarding his personal life. Tonight, he had mentioned his mother though, and how he didn’t want to be a whore like her. Daniel wondered if by whore he had meant it literally or figuratively. Maybe he could coax out more about that particular topic, once Walter’s heat was over.

“Does it feel repulsive with me?” he instead softly asked in a saddened tone and hid his face against Walter’s neck. He noticed that even though he still smelled pleasantly, he had almost stopped producing sexual pheromones for the time being. He was also cooling down to a healthier body temperature.

“… no,” was the even softer reply after a while of heavy silence. The arms which had been resting around his shoulders loosened further to allow Walter’s hands to gingerly caress Daniel’s back. They ran over damp, smooth skin with a gentleness that was almost surprising coming from a being that liked to beat the shit out of criminals as a hobby and Daniel relaxed to the point he was about to drift off. He instead forced himself to stay awake until his knot had deflated and regretfully interrupted the other vigilante’s ministrations to very carefully pull out of him, once it did. Walter grunted a little in discomfort, but seemed rather relaxed and content himself otherwise. Daniel shortly got out of bed to go to the upper floor bathroom, where he threw away the used condom and cleaned himself up a little. He returned to his bedroom with a wet towel and did the same to a complacent Walter, running the tepid cloth over his belly, the insides of his thighs and in between of them with tender loving care. When he was done, he simply threw the towel on the floor and climbed back into bed, lying down beside the other man, who shyly curled up against him. Daniel enclosed an arm around him, pulled the blankets over them and then finally allowed himself to fall asleep with a smile still lingering on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, thanks for sticking around this long. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm always kinda self-conscious about the shit I publish, so whenever I see that somebody actually enjoys reading my stuff, it means a lot to me. A single kudo/comment can make my day. The next and last part is gonna be shorter than the ones before it and conclude the story (basically just an epilogue). See you soon!


	4. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you go, guys: The last part of this fanfic... I actually wanted to post it sooner, since it's so short, but I worked a lot this week and have been ill the last bunch of days. Anyway, it's really just an epilogue, so don't expect too much.

Walter’s heat lasted only another day after being knotted for the first time. When they woke up after a long, restful slumber, his fever had picked up again, so the first thing they did that day, was have another drawn-out and tender sexual encounter. The redhead was very recipient from the very beginning, maybe still drowsy with sleep, or maybe, simply having finally come to accept what his body needed and Daniel was more than happy to provide. They took advantage of the refractory period that came after that to take a shower – first Daniel, while Walter took another exhausted nap, and then the latter, while the former prepared breakfast. They ate together, then spent the day quietly, some of it on their own, doing each their own thing, which was working on his Nite Owl suit for Daniel and reading the (filthy liberal) newspaper and taking notes in his journal for Walter. Most of the time, they were drawn to each other, however. Even with the fever of the heat temporarily subsided, both of them felt calmer when they were close to each other. The mood was somewhat tense and awkward because Walter was lucid and therefore back to his usual self, still struggling with everything that had happened and the confessions that had been made. But when Daniel pulled him closer as they sat sprawled out on the couch, watching a documentary about penguins Walter was noticeably only remotely interested in, he let himself be held without a struggle.

Towards patrol time, Walter’s heat picked up for the last time. They knew it was the last time because Walter’s alluring scent and fever disappeared completely afterwards. This time, they were a little more forceful and rougher as they stumbled into Daniel’s still messy bed. There was some biting, scratching and groping that had not been there to this extent before, and Daniel caught himself twice almost sinking his teeth too deeply into the other vigilante’ neck in the heat of the moment. When his knot locked them together for the longest time so far, they spent those twenty-five minutes gently tracing the bite and scratch marks they had left on each other’s bodies with their fingertips, kissing softly in between. They were both exhausted, but content to simply lie in each other’s arms, even after Daniel’s knot deflated and they could separate.

Later, they were under the sheets on their sides, with Daniel spooning Walter from behind. One of his hands had enclosed around one of the other man’s, which had been resting on the mattress in front of him, and he had entwined their fingers before pulling them to rest against the redhead’s stomach. He was sleepily nosing the back of Walter’s neck, noting how he had stopped smelling of heat, when the inkblot vigilante softly murmured:

“… can do it, you know.”

“Can do what?”

It was silent for a very long time, to the point Daniel thought Walter had fallen asleep or maybe been asleep all along, before he spoke again.

“… can… can mark me if you want. Don’t have to hold back all the time.”

Daniel’s breath caught in his throat. His eyes were wide in the darkness of the room and his heart had started pounding like mad in his chest. He was certain Walter could feel it against his back and through their joined hands.

“A-are you sure, Rorschach?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. Instead of giving him a verbal answer, the redhead simply moved his head and shoulder in a way that exposed the long line of his neck. Daniel could see it as a black silhouette against the moon light shining in through his bedroom’s window. His mouth began watering and he licked his lips, eyeing the curve of Walter’s neck where a small gland would ensure that no alpha except for him would approach the smaller man again for a very long time. They would spend all of Walter’s next heats together and they would grow close in a way, that only bonded couples could comprehend.

“… want you to,” softly confirmed Walter.

“O-okay.”

He gently kissed his soon to be mate’s shoulder, trailing his lips up to the curve of his neck. He spent some time simply kissing, nibbling and licking the skin there until the other vigilante started to whimper softly in impatience and maybe a little bit of arousal, if the way he kept pushing his hips back against Daniel’s was anything to go by. Daniel’s hands began to distractedly roam the body in front of his, running over a quickly rising and falling chest, a quivering belly and an erect member. He used one of his legs to part Walter’s and it was easy, so easy to push into him, since he was still so wet and loose from their coupling only hours ago. Without the condom, now that his heat had ceased, it felt even more intimate than it had before. He barely moved, rocking their hips together only slowly and gently, stopping to simply grind against Walter’s backside in between. Despite the agonizingly slow pace, he felt very close to coming already and he noticed that the redhead was clenching around him and leaking precome over the hand he had wrapped around him and was using to gently stroke him to the rhythm of his thrusts, indicating he was close as well.

Daniel bit into Walter’s neck, breaking the skin and sinking his teeth deep enough to also pierce the gland resting in there. It released a sweet tasting liquid, which he swallowed down greedily as soon as it seeped into his mouth. Walter’s hand was clawing at his thigh, trying to pull him even closer and deeper into him than he already was and he sounded like he would be moaning if he had enough air to do it. As it was, he kept gasping and panting, and Daniel gently thrusted into the tense body in front of his another few times until it clamped down hard around him and warm ejaculate spurted over his fingers. He carefully released the flesh between his teeth, squeezed his eyes tightly shut as he buried his face in the back of Walter’s head and came as well. He was both glad and disappointed, when there was no knot accompanying his orgasm this time.

As soon he wasn’t breathing quite as heavily anymore, he returned his attention to Walter’s neck and started soothingly lapping at it, letting the large amounts of saliva his mouth was producing deposit themselves in the deep and sluggishly bleeding indentations there. The small hand which had been holding onto his thigh, released it to instead bury itself in his hair and pet it shakily.

Slowly, the mating bite started to somewhat close, leaving behind only a deep bruise. Daniel stopped licking the tender skin and carefully pulled out of Walter’s body, who turned around a little the way they could share a couple of sweet, chaste kisses. They settled down for the night – tired to the bone, but happy and satisfied.

The next morning, Daniel awoke alone and heartbroken. He spent most of the day being grumpy, while trying to remind himself that mated or not mated, Rorschach still remained Rorschach. They would still meet in the evenings to bring justice to the streets of New York, they would still drink coffee together and have a bite or two before and after patrol. The only difference was that now, maybe, Rorschach would hang around another few hours even after having eaten all of his leftovers. Maybe he would let himself be kissed and held after a particularly rough night of work. _Maybe_. He reminded himself that with somebody like Rorschach, that was already a lot and that he would just have to be happy to take and appreciate whatever he’d get.

Around late afternoon, Daniel’s doorbell rang. He hadn’t bothered showering or shaving, had only put on an old t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants he had found somewhere on the floor in his bedroom after getting up. He had sulkily been sitting on the couch, watching a tv show without really paying any attention to it, pretty much ever since. He stood up with a sigh, walked up to the entrance door, ready to send whoever was on the other side straight to hell and then go back to being miserable.

Except that it was Walter Kovacs standing on the other side of it, wearing an ugly green suit and carrying a battered suitcase. Daniel did nothing but stare for a few silent minutes.

“Can I come in?” the redhead eventually asked, visibly feeling awkward under Daniel’s scrutiny.

“O-oh, sure! Sorry… come in… make yourself comfortable.”

Daniel stepped aside to let Walter enter the house, who deposited the suitcase on the floor in the hallway and then slowly turned towards him, nervously wringing his hands.

“Wasn’t… wasn’t sure about appropriateness,” he murmured, shyly glancing up at the taller man once, before looking back down and then over his shoulder at his suitcase. Daniel quickly approached him and gently enclosed him in an embrace.

“Welcome home… Walter,” he simply said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And they lived happily ever after... or something like that. Thanks sooo much to anyone, who read this fanfic - especially to those, who left a kudo or a comment... It kept me motivated to keep editing and posting this fanfic. It really means a lot to me. Feedback of any kind is always appreciated, so if you enjoyed this story (or didn't) and feel like it, let me know! Thanks again and have a wonderful day!


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